Slims 20 long

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I haven't checked on your journal in a while and it's looking really good

[Slim64684]

On 3/7/2019 at 4:35 PM, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I haven't checked on your journal in a while and it's looking really good

Sorry for the delayed responce, but thanks for the encouragememt.

[Slim64684]

Cleaned the front glass quick this morning and decided to snap a quick fts.

[Slim64684]

Had a crazy long interesting day yesterday going to the INDMAS frag swap.

 

Started at 530 am getting ready for the 2 1/2 hour drive up. 

 

Had a good time while there hearing Sanjay speak, was both informative and highly entertaining. Looking through everything on display was awsome and I even pick up a few things. 

 

Got home at about 430 ready to temp acclimate and dip everything, only to walk in the house and realize the furnace wasn't working. Floated everything yo keep the temp stable and got to work trying to fix the furnace. Spent about an hour going through, cleaning and testing things to come to the conclusion the blower was bad. 

 

Get ready to go back and get frags dipped and in the tank when the wife calls and tells me I need to be across town to go to dinner with her family. Throw my screen top back on with the frags still floating and leave for dinner.

 

Get back home at 830 and start putting the kids to bed. Finally at 9 pm I start dipping frags. Finish dipping and get all frags in the tank and tank topped back off with fresh saltwater (replaced what I used while dipping) and went to restart my canister only to have it not work. An impromptu canister cleaning along with about another 1.5 gallons for fresh saltwater later i had the canister working, big deal because my heater is inline. So it's not 1030 pm a full 17 hours after my day started and I was wiped. I also put my heater i use for heating fresh saltwater in the tank to help keep temps stable with the furnace not working. 

 

But on to the pics, I know everyone prefers pics over a wall of text.

Boston bean digi

Pink birdsnest 

Blue candy cane

Pastel alveopora

Party crasher cyphastera 

 

All pics were right after being placed In tank right after dip under dimming blues. I'll try to get better pics under better light in a bit.

 

[Slim64684]

As is seeming to become normal the last couple weeks have been kinda hectic. I normally try to do all my maintenance on the weekends and the last two weekends have not been cooperating. First was just a busy weekend with the family then last weekend I ended up sick and in bed from 4pm Friday to 3pm Sunday. Got called into work at 6pm and there went the weekend. So the reef has be a little neglected and it shows. 

 

On a bright note, being stuck in bed gave me plenty of time to stare at the tank and enjoy all the dirt.

 

Parameters arent horrible;

Sal 34ppt

NO3 10ppm

PO4 .02ppm

ALK 7.0 nown from 7.7 2 weeks ago. 

 

So new water mixing and hopefully a tank cleaning and water change today.

[Slim64684]

Finally got my maintenance done. Mounted a few corals and water change. 

Fts 4/7/16 11 days shy of 5 months from the first dose of ammonia to start the cycle.

New goni i picked up yesterday at the lfs. They also had this awsome looking metallic purple wall hammer i was thinking about getting. 

 

And because I'm too lazy to type out all my test results from pre water change, 

Today's journal entry.

[Slim64684]

To revive a dead thread, and in full transparency, rl caught up this summer and both tanks took a hit. I lost some coral, lost both fish, and gained some new coral. I feel I've done a decent job turning everything back in the right direction though. I'm also seeing some decent growth out of some of the corals. Currently battling a hair algae outbreak, but that's life. I'll update more tomorrow including a fts tomorrow once the lights ramp back up.

[debbeach13]

Welcome back.

[Slim64684]

Man I bad at this journal thing. Anyways fts from 2/11/2020

[Slim64684]

Slowly getting hair algae under control, but I now have what i think is byropsis coming on. Need to do some research on treatment. But test results from 2/17 before a waterchange:

Also my youngest (only other one in the house to show any interest in my tanks) wanted a clown so being the good dad I am I gt him one.

he stared at it for about 15 mins after I added it (3yo attention span) 

 

And since no trip to the Lfs is complete without a random purchase: 

A pokerstar monti had to come home.

[Adwyth]

I completely understand life getting in the way! Your tank looks great! I really like the way you have your heater plumbed in-line. I had thought about ditching the HOBs on my 29 for the Marineland canister I have kicking around from a FW tank I had.

 

[Slim64684]

10 hours ago, Adwyth said:

I completely understand life getting in the way! Your tank looks great! I really like the way you have your heater plumbed in-line. I had thought about ditching the HOBs on my 29 for the Marineland canister I have kicking around from a FW tank I had.

 

Thanks, but unfortunately I had to ditch the canister filter as it started to leak so now I just have the heater in the tank trying to hide behind some rocks. But it honestly doesnt bother me too much.

[Slim64684]

Well as seems to happen I got hit with the upgrade bug. New lights, new tank, sump. Started researching and initially I was leaning towards and AIO, but the more I thought about it, I decided to go with a sumped tank. I fell in love with the size and dimensions of the sca 66 gallon,  but that got nixed by the wife so, let's tear down the 29 gallon vivarium  she killed. 

 

And let the tear down begin:

 

Get everything cleaned out and let's do a quick 24 hours leak test.

[Slim64684]

I'll be turning an old 20 long into a sump for this tank

 

And in the process of getting the tank clean, and tested I ordered some plumbing parts which came in today.

 

And with that we are all caught up to the current situation. This will be my first time drilling a tank, hes hoping everything go good.

[Slim64684]

Got a little time to work tonight and decided it was now or never. So after some measuring, some double checking, a moved jig and more measuring and double checking we have it. Hole 1 ready to b drilled 

And the results 

 

So one to hole 2 all set up

And finished

And there we have it 2 holes, no cracks, minimal chips, and 1 empty beer. 1st drilled tank, surprisingly easy.

[Slim64684]

And just because I was curious, overflow and return temporarily installed 

now to get everything cleaned back up, back and side painted then plumbed for a leak test

[Slim64684]

Moving along, I'm a slow builder. sump mockup. Waiting on acrylic glue then assembly will start. 

 

 

 

And started a leak test. Just low flow for now off one of my pumps I use for a water change.

[Slim64684]

Update time: 

Did a quick test fit with my pump before I started installing baffles. That was a little tight for my liking so I made the return chamber 1" larger.

Baffles all installed and waiting for silicone to cure. Anywhere an acrylic panel was joined to another acrylic panel weld-on 4 was used. Acrylic to glass was siliconed with ge silicone 1.

[Slim64684]

Cut and installed ledges for media tower shelves, wanted them to be removable. Acrylic to acrylic welded in place.

Acrylic to glass good old silicone. 

 

And also if anyone is interested: 

My way to cut acrylic. One piece of plywood screwed to another to clamp acrylic in place and act as a straight edge to guide my jigsaw. I measured each cut off the wood edge with a 6" scale as I was working in 1/32" increments. 

[Slim64684]

Couldn't decide if I wanted to use the suction cup mounts that come with my heaters or cut an acrylic holder to mount them in.

[Slim64684]

Decided on acrylic as suction cups are prone to come loose over time. Heaters will be a 75 watt eheim jager and a 50 watt jager. 125 watts total should be enough for the 35 gallon total capacity of the system, but neither should be large enough to cook the tank should one stick on. 

 

Still need to silicone heater holder to glass on the bottom of the tank, then wait for all the adhesives to fully cure to water test the sump.

[Slim64684]

Tests, algae clean up, and water change today. 

 

All tests were what I thought they should be except for alk. I'm normally at 8.4-8.6 but today was 7.0. A 1.4dkh drop over a 2 week span. I did clean my test vials with vinegar, but I thought I'd done a good enough rinse job I would be ok. So I tested again. Still 7.0. 

 

Went about my business of trying to control my algae so I pulled and scraped as much out while I siphoned water. Pull a couple of the really bad rocks out and brushed them off.

 

Go to refill with new saltwater and almost filled over the top of my tank. I use my ato float to set water level when refilling during a water change and the float stuck. In messing with the float my ato kicked on causing water to siphon from the tank into my ato container. Finally got fed up with the float and just replaced it quick, problem 1 solved. Completely emptied my ato container and refilled with new distilled water. Problem 2 taken care of. 

 

Still have some algae problems so I went ahead and dosed reef flux to try to clear it up.

 

Anyways enough rambling pic time.

[mtnbikeracer]

Looking good Slim

[Slim64684]

Big changes on the reef. 

Last ever fts for the 20 long. Stay tuned.....

On 4/26/2020 at 10:14 AM, mtnbikeracer said:

Looking good Slim

thanks, its a slow process but getting there.

[Slim64684]

So on 3/22/20 the 20 long had come to an end. And the process of setting up the sumped 29 began. I started off on 3/15/20 making up all new water. 32 gallons total, but being that I use a 5 gallon bucket to mix up saltwater I needed a solution. Enter: the jug brigade. 

12 gallons in the sump, 8 gallons in buckets and 12 gallons in jugs.